jaydeebee
09-06-2006, 02:55 PM
There is an inherent risk involved with pre-ordering comic books. That risk being; you can't thumb through an issue prior to buying it to see whether or not you want it.
In this day and age of "pull-lists" and subscription services, I have chosen to be a maverick among men, ordering only a few very expensive comics from discount retailers like DISCOUNT COMIC BOOK SERVICE, while chosing to purchase the rest of my comics from the rack in my LCS.
Some time ago, I became aware of a title that my LCS didn't stock, an anthology title called SOLO, published on occasion by DC COMICS. The concept behind the title was interesting. Give one artist or one writer the entire oversized issue to do pretty much whatever they wanted to, using whatever DC characters they wanted in out-of-continuity stories.
Up until now, I'd only purchased one other issue; #11 with funny man Sergio Aregones', whose work is always pleasing. So with that in mind, I went ahead and order issue #12. which was by a creator I hadn't really heard of; Brendan McCarthy. Now I know why I hadn't heard of him.
I knew I was in trouble as soon as I saw the cover of SOLO #12 which featured a drawing of Captain Three-Heads and Boobs. Actually, the character has a different name in the issue, but I don't really know what it was, so it's Captain Three-Heads and Boobs or CT-HAB to me!
The issue opens with a poem 'Jelly Night' which begins "Downtown Smallville is made of Jelly". That line alone made the most sense of anything else I read in this book, that ought to tell you something about the kind of storytelling you're in for in SOLO #12.
The first "story" involves CT-HAB purchasing a new comic book called Lord of Nothing reading a few pages of it and declaring it "total trash". At this point in the story, I can totally identify with Captain Three-Heads and Boobs. Although I think the writer was attempting to make some sort of social commentary, I totally missed it and resent the attempt.
The rest of the issue started to go downhill fast, Superman, The Flash, The Legion of Super-Heroes and Batman all show up in this issue, sort of, but fans of each will be sorely disappointed and dismayed by the use of these characters. I actually stopped reading Mr. McCarthy's words about halfway through the issue and just started making up my own dialogue to go along with the trippy looking art, because I realized about that time why I had never read anything by Brendan McCarthy prior to this; the man is as buggy as an outhouse rat! Grant Morrison looks positively sane by comparison to this nut case! I've never taken elicit drugs or indulged in large quantities of alcohol, but I'm guessing that SOLO #12 had a lot of things in common with LSD and Crack mixed with Thunderbird wine and old Jack D!
I've always wanted to run a comic through my paper shedder just to see what would be the result. In the case of of SOLO #12, I think I could paste the pieces back together in random order and notice no difference from the pre-shredded form.
I had heard a rumor that issue 12 was to be the final issue of the SOLO series. In my opinion, DC should have ended the series one issue earlier. SOLO #12 by Brendan McCarthy is "total trash", a waste of paper, ink, and staples...but mostly a waste of my money, and should serve as a warning to those who pre-order comics.
SOLO #12 earns 0 out of 10, it's the single worst comic I have ever seen, it has no redeeming qualities what so ever.
In this day and age of "pull-lists" and subscription services, I have chosen to be a maverick among men, ordering only a few very expensive comics from discount retailers like DISCOUNT COMIC BOOK SERVICE, while chosing to purchase the rest of my comics from the rack in my LCS.
Some time ago, I became aware of a title that my LCS didn't stock, an anthology title called SOLO, published on occasion by DC COMICS. The concept behind the title was interesting. Give one artist or one writer the entire oversized issue to do pretty much whatever they wanted to, using whatever DC characters they wanted in out-of-continuity stories.
Up until now, I'd only purchased one other issue; #11 with funny man Sergio Aregones', whose work is always pleasing. So with that in mind, I went ahead and order issue #12. which was by a creator I hadn't really heard of; Brendan McCarthy. Now I know why I hadn't heard of him.
I knew I was in trouble as soon as I saw the cover of SOLO #12 which featured a drawing of Captain Three-Heads and Boobs. Actually, the character has a different name in the issue, but I don't really know what it was, so it's Captain Three-Heads and Boobs or CT-HAB to me!
The issue opens with a poem 'Jelly Night' which begins "Downtown Smallville is made of Jelly". That line alone made the most sense of anything else I read in this book, that ought to tell you something about the kind of storytelling you're in for in SOLO #12.
The first "story" involves CT-HAB purchasing a new comic book called Lord of Nothing reading a few pages of it and declaring it "total trash". At this point in the story, I can totally identify with Captain Three-Heads and Boobs. Although I think the writer was attempting to make some sort of social commentary, I totally missed it and resent the attempt.
The rest of the issue started to go downhill fast, Superman, The Flash, The Legion of Super-Heroes and Batman all show up in this issue, sort of, but fans of each will be sorely disappointed and dismayed by the use of these characters. I actually stopped reading Mr. McCarthy's words about halfway through the issue and just started making up my own dialogue to go along with the trippy looking art, because I realized about that time why I had never read anything by Brendan McCarthy prior to this; the man is as buggy as an outhouse rat! Grant Morrison looks positively sane by comparison to this nut case! I've never taken elicit drugs or indulged in large quantities of alcohol, but I'm guessing that SOLO #12 had a lot of things in common with LSD and Crack mixed with Thunderbird wine and old Jack D!
I've always wanted to run a comic through my paper shedder just to see what would be the result. In the case of of SOLO #12, I think I could paste the pieces back together in random order and notice no difference from the pre-shredded form.
I had heard a rumor that issue 12 was to be the final issue of the SOLO series. In my opinion, DC should have ended the series one issue earlier. SOLO #12 by Brendan McCarthy is "total trash", a waste of paper, ink, and staples...but mostly a waste of my money, and should serve as a warning to those who pre-order comics.
SOLO #12 earns 0 out of 10, it's the single worst comic I have ever seen, it has no redeeming qualities what so ever.